1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a display support stand applicable for directly supporting a merchandise, a merchandise containing case, or a planar board having a pictorial representation of a merchandise, and particularly relates to a support stand constructed from a unique design pattern provided on a single cardboard or corrugated board. The stand is easily foldable to a collapsed condition for storage and transportation and is readily erectable from the folded collapsed condition to the erected condition either manually or automatically.
2. Background Art
Display stands are widely employed for displaying merchandise and/or advertising pictorial boards showing the merchandise particularly in retail facilities. Merchandise display stands made of cardboard or corrugated board are cost effective to fabricate and transport, and convenient to use. Such display stands are commonly made from a design pattern provided on a single sheet material such as a cardboard or corrugated board. The pattern is cut or stamped out from the sheet and the pattern is then folded along various pre-arranged fold lines to form the stand in the erected condition. The stand may either have an A-frame with front and back panels sloping upwards from a relatively large rectangular bottom base which maintains the stand to rest stably on the ground when the stand is in the erected condition. Some stands may have a foldable front pedestal for supporting a merchandise show case or by placing the merchandise directly on the pedestal. However, due to the bulkiness of the sheet material and the relatively large dimensions of the design, many such stands are usually difficult and time consuming to assemble. Furthermore, they are considerably difficult to fold to a collapsed condition for storage and transportation and it is also often problematic to unfold them from the folded condition to the erected condition.
Some stands incorporate elastic cords which are stretched to the tension condition when the stand is in the folded condition so that the stand may be erected automatically by mainly allowing the elastic cords to pull the various parts of the folded structure to unfold so as to erect the stand in a self pop-up manner. The incorporation of elastic cords in the stand often renders the stand very awkward and relatively difficult to fold into the folded condition from the erected condition because of the necessity of having to fold the various parts while maintaining the elastic cords connected to these parts in the tensioned condition.
Another problem with the foldable cardboard stand is that the cardboard inherently retains its folded condition after it has been folded for some time such that it becomes difficult to unfold even with the tension force provided by the elastic cords. For this reason, many so called self-erectable stands are not effective in the self-erecting operation. Some foldable cardboard stands are provided with a pivotable brace panel within the stand to force the folded stand to unfold. The brace panel is folded against the front or rear panel within the stand when the latter is in the collapsed and in the folded condition. It can be pivoted to the horizontal position during the erecting operation of the stand to force the front and rear panels to move apart from one another so as to ensure that the stand would effectively unfold from the folded collapsed condition. However, such additional pivotable brace panel are not integrally formed with the stand but is an individual separate part which must be attached at one edge to the inner wall of the front or rear panel of the stand with adhesive during or after the stand has been assembled. Such additional attaching operation with adhesive is labor intensive and time consuming to carry out, and it greatly increases the fabrication time of the stand. Still furthermore, the pivotable brace renders the folding operation of the stand awkward and difficult to carry out since the brace must be first manually folded pivotally to abut the front or rear panel of the stand and then with it held in the folded condition while the stand is being folded.
Another long suffered problem with foldable stand is that the walls of its base lacks rigidity such that they are unable to support the weight of attachments mounted to the stand during use; and particularly the integrity or the side walls of the base will deteriorate quickly after the stand has been repeatedly folded and unfolded several times thus rendering the stand useless. Some stands have attempted to resolve the problem by providing side walls double-folded inward at the lower edges so as increase their rigidity. However, the double-folded side walls require additional fabrication processes and they also render the folding and unfolding operations of the stand very difficult and unwieldy.